The invention relates to a floor care appliance in the form of a carpet cleaning appliance in the form of a brush vacuum cleaner having a brush set facing the floor for receiving a driven brush roller, where the brush set can be connected by means of a pivotable connecting element having air guiding channels, in the form of a connecting piece for an attachable filter housing, to a handle in the form of a hand grip via corresponding connections and the brush set accommodates at least one electric motor for a suction fan and for the drive of the brush roller and the air guiding channels of the pivotable connecting element are guided for supplying the dirt-laden air from the brush set to the filter housing and returning the filtered air via a parallel air guiding channel to the brush set and air is exhausted from the suction fan via discharge openings.
In appliances of this type, there is a requirement to supply the exhaust air from the suction fan via relatively expensive filter elements to a discharge opening. For this purpose it is necessary to accommodate filter elements having large dimensions in the appliance. In appliances of the generic type, as a result of the necessary small overall height of the brush set as a flat configuration it is not possible to accommodate a functional filter of the required size without bringing about an impairment of the suction work to be carried out underneath items of furniture and the like.
Corresponding documentary prior art is disclosed, for example by the applicant himself in DE 91 04 750 U1. DE 91 04 750 U1 discloses a brush vacuum cleaner with a pivotable connection between a filter housing and a brush set. In this case the suction fan is disposed in the brush set.
Further documentary prior art is known from U.S. Pat. No. 6,266,845 B1 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,946,771.